As seems to be the case just about every year, it was the Super Bowl ads that kept audiences glued to television screens. TIME's Jim Poniewozik was one of those who carefully watched and evaluated every ad of the evening. Here's his take on the best of the best from this year's Super Bowl of advertising

Diet Pepsi MAX

By James PoniewozikMonday, Feb. 04, 2008

Across America, people are falling asleep: sportscasters, singers, valets, factory workers. Until they get a wake-up  and get an apparently uncontrollable head tic  from Pepsi Max, with "ginseng and extra caffeine." Bizarrely, closes with an irritated man yelling "STOP IT!" at two happy head bobbers, as if the commercial itself could not avoid noticing how stupid it is.

Grade: C-

(Update: The man at the end of the ad, readers point out, is Chris Kattan, and the head-bob a reference to A Night at the Roxbury. Not that I especially wanted to relive that movie.)